Preview

Science vs Nature

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
534 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Science vs Nature
The Birthmark” was a great story that written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Throughout this era of history, vast development was being made in the region of science and technology, which lead to ground-breaking and tremendous discoveries. It also opened doors to numerous of new branches in the scientific field of research. The scientist, Aylmer, the key character in The Birthmark, attempts to take his experimental study to the maximum of science in a venture to run Nature. Aylmer becomes intensely enchanted in a fight which science opposes nature in an effort to gain control over nature. Aylmer dreadfully tries to generate a world of flawlessness in his flawed world. He engages in the clash of science versus Nature, he thinks his feel affection for science can rival, his wife Georgiana. Aylmer lives and works in a period in which science is relatively new and misunderstood at the time. Science is described in this story as “mystical” and “mysterious”, with proving that the work Aylmer was doing was well thought-out to be a kind of magic or voodoo by the people with no kind of scientific culture. Near the beginning of the story, Aylmer has been impregnated by the idea that crucial perfection has been within reach through science. This becomes the dynamic force following Aylmer’s motives. With his marriage to Georgiana, this driving force of perfection becomes an obsession that takes over his mind. Aylmer loved Georgiana deeply but he could not tolerate her single imperfection. Georgiana was nearly perfect from the hand of Nature, but on her “left cheek there was a single mark, deeply interwoven. This tiny, irrelevant birthmark was so disgusting to Aylmer that he

refused to kiss her on the cheek, or even look at it in daylight. It drove Aylmer mad that his wife was so close to perfection. His mission was to formulate a mixture to remove the birthmark parting his wife as the solitary most perfect being ever formed. On the other hand,

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Robber Barrons

    • 1451 Words
    • 6 Pages

    To what extent was it justified to characterize the industrial leaders of the late 19th century as either “robber barons” or “captains of industry”?…

    • 1451 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    American Lit Unit 8

    • 562 Words
    • 3 Pages

    7. What did Aylmer think of his wife’s birthmark? He despised it, he wanted her to have it removed. He felt it was the one thing that kept her from being perfect.…

    • 562 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In "The Birth-Mark" by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the author floods the story with many forms of symbolism to show there is no true form of perfection on earth. Although trying to accomplish such a thing, Aylmer not only highlights his failures as a scientist, but also kills his beautiful wife. After many nights of gazing upon his wife's porcelain face, slaying her heart with his disgusted looks, Aylmer convinces his wife Georgiana to let him conduct an experiment on the hand-shaped, rosy birthmark she flaunted upon her cheek, to remove such flaw and achieve pure perfection on earth. Within Aylmer's laboratory exists two contrasting rooms that display not only the workplace for the grungy men, but the heavenly boudoir of which his wife so pleasently…

    • 265 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “No, dearest Georgiana, you came so nearly perfect from the hand of Nature, that this is the slightest possible defect- which we hesitate whether to term a defect or a beauty- shocks me, as being the visible mark of earthly imperfection (Hawthorne 645).” Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Birth-Mark” uses symbolism to explore the stain of sin on the world and in the individual. Georgiana is the picture of pure perfection, with one exception, a hand shaped birthmark on her left cheek. There are many themes in this piece. They include, the mark of sin brought in the world and the inability for a human to cleanse themselves from sin. Another theme in this story is the necessary imperfection within people. Each of the characters in “The Birth-Mark” are appalled by the imperfection on the surface. But are unaware of the imperfection within themselves. Hawthorne’s “The Birth-Mark” examines the sinful nature of the world and mankind’s desire to remove it from the surface.…

    • 810 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Birth Mark” is very heavy on science. The main character, Aylmer, is a scientist; the first line of the story is, “In the latter part of the last century, there lived a man of science,” (14). There is no clear delineation between magic and science though, creating a very eerie and superstitious mood as the story progresses and Aylmer falls deeper into his obsession over Georgiana’s birthmark. The text says he was “confident in his science, and felt he could draw a magic circle round her within no evil might intrude” (20). The word science is used to describe illusion, evil, magic, as well as the physical manipulation of another person through surgery or alchemy. Aylmer creates illusions that make him seem like he “held sway over the spiritual world,“ and it’s said that those illusions are…

    • 850 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Beauty is the eyes of the beholder. One man’s beauty can be misery for another. For perfectionists it can be difficult to find the perfection. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Birthmark” is a story of a couple’s foolish search for perfection which ends with a tragedy. Georgiana, who is the victim of god’s small mistake, is one of the main characters in the story. On the outside, she looked so in love with her husband that she was able to give up her life to satisfy him. On the inside, she was an egotistical woman who wanted everyone to admit that she was the true definition of beauty.…

    • 328 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Theseus Hero Quotes

    • 534 Words
    • 3 Pages

    “Theseus was, of course, bravest of the brave, as all heroes are; but, unlike other heroes, he was as compassionate as he was brave, and a man of great intellect as well as great bodily strength,(Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes). This is a quote about the Grecian hero, Theseus. The quote itself describes him with great accuracy, because he is the greatest Greek hero. There are three reasons why.…

    • 534 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    What is a birthmark? Webster’s Dictionary states: A birthmark is a blemish or new growth on the skin formed before birth and is usually brown or dark red in color. There is no need to say that it is not a normal part of one’s body, a birthmark is just a part of being a human. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s famously known short story, “‘The Birthmark’, tells of a scientist’s passion to overcome what he deems to be the imperfection of nature” (Cassill) and uses the birthmark its self, Aylmer’s dream, the laboratory and boudoir as symbols of the different ideas of how one gets their selves away from humanity and into a different, more perfect life.…

    • 1168 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The story of “The Birdmark” against humans use science and technology to meet the individual's endless greed and want to express the view that modern humans should control the various desires pursued by the material, the proper use of science and technology properly, and ultimately the benefit of mankind, rather than bring man-made disaster. The truth is the most valuable, and all through other means to meet the satisfaction but is self-defeating only. Scientific experiments that violated the laws of nature and did not bring any benefit to mankind, but the self-destruction of mankind. It said that the famous “The Birthmark” is based on a real story. One day, Hawthorne was reading a book: a young scientist was busy in the laboratory all days…

    • 191 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    A short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne, “The Birthmark”, is a short story about a newly married couple and the husband becomes obsessed with his wife’s birthmark. The birthmark is a symbol in the text. The text reads as follows “The crimson hand expressed the ineludible gripe in which mortality clutches the highest and purest of earthly mould, degrading them into kindred with the lowest, and even with the very brutes, like whom their visible frames return to dust. In this manner, selecting it as the symbol of his wife's liability to sin, sorrow, decay, and death” (Booth 215 ). Hawthorne is telling us the readers that love is not perfect using the symbol as the birthmark itself. The husband, Alymer wants to control nature to try to fix this birthmark , but in all reality it is his insecurity. Alymer wants perfection in his wife and this perfection does not exist.…

    • 561 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The desire to make history to discover what remains undiscovered, or to know what remains unknown is an everlasting human goal. Although many have failed to realize this dream, a very few have been passionately successful in its pursuit. The immortality power that these select few have, of course, only provided to encourage those who come after. Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's Frankenstein is a literary reflection upon this intensely human desire here illustrated by the title character's quest for personal glory by means of scientific discovery.…

    • 437 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Industrial Revolution that was happening in the early twilight of the 19th centuries changed the world forever. The introduction of science as a possible cure for all became apparent. Many fascination inventions such as steamboat, cars and electricity were created and the outlook for the future was bright. However, because of this, many scientists turned a blind eye to the dangers of knowledge and unwittingly caused many sorrows in their process to become "god". Such examples are introduced in the following two stories: Frankenstein and "The birthmark". In both stories, the author created a character that was to symbolize the scientists of the early 19th centuries who believed that anything was possible with science. In "The Birthmark", Hawthorne's character Aylmer tries to remove his wife's birthmark with his use of science but ends up killing her. While in Frankenstein, the protagonist Victor attempts to use science to create life but ends up destroying those there were closest to him.…

    • 674 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Symbolism In The Birthmark

    • 1103 Words
    • 5 Pages

    In Hawthorne's short story, "The Birthmark," he examines that nature is supposed to be imperfect and cannot be changed. Hawthorne's main character, Aylmer is a static and stock character who does not change and is a mad scientist. He is determined to remove his wive's birthmark and is in denial that nature is imperfect and not everything can be changed. Hawthorne examines the theme that nature is supposed to be imperfect he shows it through Aylmers thoughts about how nature works. Aylmer is a part of nature himself and tries to achieve perfection by making his wife perfect and removing the birthmark. Lastly, Hawthorne uses symbolism to once again portray that nature cannot be changed and it is meant to be imperfect. The dream Aylmer has a deception…

    • 1103 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Birthmark

    • 1163 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Human beings have a natural desire to be perfect, but in reality perfection is unattainable. Throughout “The Birthmark”, Georgiana is constantly confronted with the fact that she bares the “visible mark of earthly imperfection.” Georgiana “came so nearly perfect from the hand of Nature” but was deemed defective by this “singular mark […] that wore a tint of deeper crimson, which imperfectly defined its shape amid the surrounding rosiness.” (pg. 47) Alymer, Georgiana's husband, made his feeling about the birthmark quite clear. He believed that it “destroyed the effect of Georgiana's beauty, and rendered her countenance even hideous.” (pg. 47) And so, Alymer suggested that they remove the mark from Georgiana's cheek. He was extremely confident in his scientific abilities to erase the mark from his wife's cheek and believed that he could fix what Nature had overlooked. What Alymer did not realize is that Nature makes no mistakes, and whatever a man can manufacture will never be equivalent to what is natural and organic. Additionally, “Nature, in one shape or another, stamps ineffaceably on all her productions, either to imply that they are temporary and finite, or that their perfection must be wrought by toil and pain.” (pg. 48) Therefor, despite Alymer's obsession with ridding Georgiana of this mark, Earth would never allow a perfect being to be in existence.…

    • 1163 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Birthmark

    • 279 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The birthmark upon Georgiana's face represents her humanity. It's just man's nature to be imperfect. Hawthorne states that it represents her flaws. her Husban Aylmer wants to remove the birthmark because he wants to get rid of his wife's, Georgiana, flaws in order to make her prefect.…

    • 279 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays